NASCAR

After Josh Berry’s Las Vegas Win, Are The Wood Brothers Once Again A Team To Be Reckoned With?

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By
Jared Turner
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Jared Turner Sports Editor

Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.

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Published20 Mar 2025

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Josh Berry - Las Vegas Motor Speedway Victory Lane

Over the course of 75 years, Wood Brothers Racing has experienced all of the ups and downs that professional motorsports can offer.

Over the last few decades, though, the fabled organization founded by the late NASCAR legend Glen Wood has floundered a lot more than it has flourished.

But the arrival of Josh Berry as driver of the iconic No. 21 Ford for 2025 has breathed new life into the team — a team that captured 96 NASCAR Cup Series wins between 1953 and 1993 but that’s triumphed just five times in all the years since.

5 Races Into 2025, Josh Berry And The Wood Brothers Have Proven They’re The Real Deal

With second-generation wheelman Harrison Burton as their driver over the past three seasons, the Wood Brothers struggled to run competitively with any level of consistency. How bad was it? Burton, son of former Cup Series driver Jeff Burton, posted just six top-10 finishes in 108 starts for the team.

Granted, one of those top-10s was a victory last summer at Daytona that put the Wood Brothers in the playoffs and gave the organization its landmark, long-awaited 100th NASCAR Cup Series win. But Burton’s big night at The World Center of Racing was too little too late, as the Wood Brothers had already named Berry their driver for 2025.

So far, the choice of Berry has bore significant fruit for the single-car team, which boasts a close technical alliance with Team Penske’s powerhouse three-car organization. A handful of races into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, Berry — who spent his rookie Cup Series season of 2024 with now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing — has been downright impressive.

How impressive? He’s already led more laps than Burton did over his three seasons in the car. Berry has also been competitive in four of the first five races, punctuating his fast start with a win this past weekend at Las Vegas.

With that victory, Berry both punched a ticket to the 2025 playoffs and gave the Wood Brothers their first win on a 1.5-mile track since Morgan Shepherd prevailed at Atlanta in 1993.

With Sunday’s outcome, the Wood Brothers have now gone to Victory Lane in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1986 and 1987 with driver Kyle Petty. So, are the Wood Brothers — one of NASCAR’s most storied organizations — legit frontrunners for the first time in over four decades?

“The results speak for themselves,” said team president and co-owner Jon Wood, who manages the Wood Brothers’ X account. “I haven’t really had to be super crappy on social lately and defend ourselves. Josh is just doing it. That’s the neat part.”

Wood Brothers CEO: Early-Season Success Is A Testament To Our Resilience

While Berry led only 18 of 267 laps at Las Vegas, his trip to the Winner’s Circle was no fluke. Just one week earlier, at Phoenix Raceway, the former NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 driver for JR Motorsports finished fourth.

Two weeks before that, at Atlanta, Berry paced the field for 56 laps and earned a stage win before being involved a late-race accident.

Berry and first-year crew chief Miles Stanley have already proven to be quite the formidable driver-crew chief pairing.

“I think Josh fits us,” said team co-owner and chief executive officer Eddie Wood, the son of Glen Wood. “Miles fits us. Everything just fits. I used to make fun of people years ago when they would talk about chemistry. Football teams, baseball, all that. Then it kind of bled over into racing. This goes back a few years.

“When things click, they click. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. I was there when David Pearson and Leonard Wood, my uncle, hooked up. That clicked instantly, like right off the bat. This feels like everything is clicking.”

After such a lengthy rough patch for the Wood Brothers, Eddie Wood is glad to have the team back in the proverbial discussion.

“In racing, it’s always next week,” Wood said. “You got another week. You got another opportunity to turn things around if you’re not doing well. That’s how I think we’ve survived this long. Just you never give up, you never quit, and you just keep going to the next race.

“All of a sudden, things will start building. You stay on the corner long enough, it will be your turn eventually. That’s kind of the way we are.”